Wednesday, January 27, 2010

sleeping on it

Monday night I tossed and turned, worrying over what to do with the chenille yarn in my stash. Truth be told, I was considering bundling it up to donate to a thrift store. But after sleeping on it, I had an idea. Maybe it will work for cat mats? A phone call to my local humane society confirmed that they would like handknit cat mats, at a size of 12" x 12" please, larger for dogs.

My plan is to cast on 98 stitches with a provisional crochet cast on, knit a 12" tube, insert some quilt batting, graft both ends shut, and then somehow quilt the layers together. Voilà, I should have a thick and soft mat. The ball band warns against machine washing and drying, but I'm going to test that. Cat mats must be sanitized regularly, so the plan hinges on how well it launders. We'll see in a few days!